The present preferred embodiment relates to a method and a device for processing a measurement signal for detecting a property of a toner mark, in which a signal curve of a measurement signal is determined.
In electrographic high-speed printers for printing individual sheets or web-type carrier material at print speeds of >50 DIN A4 sheets per minute up to several hundred DIN A4 sheets per minute, as well as print and image production speeds of, currently, up to 2 meters per second, large quantities of toner material may be consumed within a relatively short time in order to produce the print images. In such electrographic high-speed printers, inking control devices are used in order to keep the degree of inking of print images constant. Electrographic image production methods include for example electrographic, magnetographic, and ionographic image production methods.
From document DE 101 36 259 A1, and the parallel U.S. Pat. No. 7,016,620 B2, a method and a device are known for controlling a print process in which a character generator produces a toner mark on an intermediate carrier with energy lower than that used to produce other print images, so that the color density of the inked toner mark is reduced. A reflection sensor determines the color density of the inked toner mark, and in a developer station the toner concentration is set as a function of the determined color density.
In addition, from document DE 101 51 703 A1, and the parallel U.S. Pat. No. 6,771,913 B2, measurement arrangements are known for determining the layer thickness of a toner mark using capacitive sensors. The named documents are hereby incorporated into the present description by reference.
A false detection, in particular a false measurement value, of a property of the toner mark used for the regulation of the electrographic image production process would result immediately in incorrect settings of the parameters of the image production process, and would in particular cause an incorrect inking of the print image to be produced. Such a false detection of the property of the toner mark can in particular cause an incorrect inking of the print image to be produced. Such a false detection of the property of the toner mark can in particular be caused by disturbances, damage, or contamination of an intermediate image carrier, in particular a photoconductor or a transfer band.
From each of the documents JP 2004-341232 A, US 2004/0253013 A, U.S. Pat. No. 5,574,544 A, US 2003/0081214 A, U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,337 A, and US 2003/231350 A, arrangements and methods are known for detecting a toner mark, by which an image production process is controlled.